Role-play and student engagement: reflections from the classroom

Role-play is viewed by scholars as an effective active learning strategy: it encourages participation among passive learners, adds dynamism to the classroom and promotes the retention of material. But what do students think of role-play? This study surveyed 144 students after a role-play activity in a history course and asked them to identify what they gained from the activity and if it encouraged them to learn more about the topic. The results found conflicting student views: though a large majority found the activity beneficial, a small minority gained little from the exercise. It is argued that role-play can be counterproductive for weak and/or unprepared students. Role-play may be a popular teaching method but teachers should consider how format and preparation can impact learning outcomes.     

New teachers learning in rural and regional Australia

This paper reports on a longitudinal ethnographic study of beginning primary school teachers in rural and regional Victoria, Australia. The study uses a conceptual framework of place and workplace learning to ask: How do new teachers learn to do their work and how do they learn about the places and communities in which they begin teaching? In this paper, we focus on data from the first year of the three-year longitudinal study, using a place-based survey and ethnographic interviews. We found that the space of the classroom was the dominant site of learning to become a teacher for the new teachers in this study. This learning was understood through the discourse of classroom management. Analysis of these storylines reveals the ways in which the community and classroom are not separate but intertwined, and the process of learning about their communities began through the children in their classes.     

Taking Up Opportunities to Learn: Constructing Dispositions in Mathematics Classrooms

This article presents an analysis of how students' dispositions toward learning shift and change over time through their engagement with particular classroom practices and identifies classroom practices that support the development of more productive dispositions. An analysis of 4 purposefully selected students from 2 different classrooms reveals that membership in a classroom activity system does not determine one's emergent disposition toward learning. However, it is likely that similar types of dispositions might emerge within a single classroom activity system. The analysis further seeks to understand the mechanisms that underlie the ways in which dispositions are enacted in moments of interaction, and how aspects of classroom practice impact this enactment. The findings support the argument that social, affective, and motivational factors are not simply influences on learning but are, instead, central to and inseparable from the learning process.     

Understanding the use of online role-play for collaborative argument through teacher experiencing: a case study

As computers and the Internet are increasingly employed in language teaching and learning, preparing teachers for the impending reality of online teaching is of paramount importance. This study investigated 10 in-service teachers participating in an online role-play as part of a digital education methods course to acquire an understanding of the use of online role-play for collaborative argument. The role-play lasted for 3 weeks and underwent three stages: preparation, implementation and reflection. Analyses of data gathered from the questionnaire survey, the class website for role-play, the blogs and the interviews indicate that online role-play was an appropriate way for teaching collaborative argument given that the topics were well-chosen and well-prepared, and that asynchronous role-play was more helpful than the synchronous role-play given the challenge of tracking the development of ideas. Benefits and problems of online role-play through synchronous chat were analysed and solutions were discussed. The research provides a new perspective on how teachers can be educated to integrate technology into their language instruction through their own experience of learning.     

Learning Through Literature: Historical Fiction, Autobiography, and the Holocaust

Holocaust education in England and Wales received a major boost in 1990 when, as part of the National Curriculum, it became a mandatory subject of study for all secondary aged students in the maintained sector. Many schools in the United States have also been teaching the Holocaust for some time (usually to students in grades 8 to 10), but in contrast to the United Kingdom the way the subject is taught has aroused considerable opposition. Among the more censorious of the critics was the historian, Lucy Dawidowicz, who examined a range of Holocaust curricula in 24 states and in New York City. Reporting her findings in Commentary in 1990 she castigated the majority of the curricula for their inadequate coverage of the history of anti-Semitism prior to Hitler (particularly its integral link with Christianity), role-play exercises likely to produce trauma, and the drawing of inappropriate parallels with other genocides. She said nothing, however, about the value of literature as a vehicle for learning about the Holocaust—a surprising omission in view of the prominent coverage it receives in the best known of the curricula Facing History and Ourselves. Due to the paucity of research in this area, the editors would welcome letters from teachers who have used Holocaust literature in the classroom.     

Empowering discourse: discourse analysis as method and practice in the sociology classroom

Collaborative learning and critical pedagogy are widely recognized as ‘empowering’ pedagogies for higher education. Yet, the practical implementation of both has a mixed record. The question, then, is: How could collaborative and critical pedagogies be empowered themselves? This paper makes a primarily theoretical case for discourse analysis (DA) as a form of classroom practice that provides a structured framework for collaborative and critical pedagogies in higher education, with a special reference to sociology classroom practice. I develop a tripartite scheme for building a framework for sociological imagination that is, first, sensitive to the discursive aspects of social reality (learning about DA). Second, I illustrate the use of DA as pedagogical tool and classroom practice (learning with DA). Third, I discuss how discourse analytical ideas can be used in evaluating classroom interaction and how these reflexive insights can be used to enhance student empowerment (learning through DA).     

Bodies and affect in non-traditional learning spaces

Abstract

This paper considers the ‘knowledge economy’ as it is used in education rhetoric to establish social and educational consent for significant changes both to the spatial organisation of classrooms and their affective economies. We draw on ethnographic data from a study of ‘non-traditional classroom spaces’, where the spatial organisation of schooling emerged as a potential fulcrum through which the imaginary of the conventional primary classroom was being reconceptualised. Traditionally configured classroom spaces and the learning that takes place within them were being challenged and replaced by notions of twenty-first century learning in ‘agile’ learning environments. In the context of this reform agenda, these open-plan spaces were seen as offering new prospects for participation in a globally connected and competitive economic world that requires students to continuously adapt, innovate and respond creatively to a range of different problems. We consider how these everyday moments function as conceptual encounters between affective, embodied experiences and educational reform discourses that rationalise the implementation of non-traditional classroom spaces in ways that have very little to do with children and their futures. This cultural approach takes a step aside from numerous, and necessary, critiques of recent educational policies per se, in order to consider what might be learned from the uncanny spectres of child bodies that haunt them. The paper draws attention to examples of children’s affect in non-traditional classrooms and what that may tell us about current educational reform when sacrifice forms part of the missing account of educational reorganisation for the knowledge economy.     

‘What makes her succeed?’ Children's interpretations of their peers' successes in learning situations

Previous research has shown that observing peers' success in learning is important for the development of children's belief in themselves as learners. However, in research, these observations are seldom made in actual classroom learning activities. This study investigated how children explain factors that lead to their peers' successes in classroom learning activities. Seventeen elementary school children from first, second and third grade participated in a ‘detective course’ in which they needed to capture moments of success using a mobile camera device. The pictures were used for photo-elicitation interviews (n?=?28) in order to find out children's views on the reasons for their peers' successes in learning situations. Pictorial data (n?=?361) were coded with data-driven categories to see what kind of situations children considered successful. The results show that the reasons given for peers' successes dealt with situation-specific information, such as mastery and quality of performance. Findings indicate that children explain peers' successes through the actions that their peers made during the situations, rather than by comparison between the abilities of their classmates. The results provide information for practitioners and teachers on how to promote children to use the example of their peers to recognise and explain successful learning situations in the classroom.     

“I've got to do this in a Southern”: Stylized spoken literary quotation in the ELA classroom

This article investigates whole‐class discussions of literature in the English classroom and the pragmatics of teacher interpretation in and through the voices of characters. In particular, it focuses on the whole‐class oral reading and discussion of the Tennessee Williams' play A Streetcar Named Desire in an ethnically and linguistically diverse rural Canadian classroom, and the teacher's stylized “Southern” oral performances of significant characters as part of her responses to student answers in whole‐class talk. Using extensive audio data from a 12th‐grade English class and drawing from the analytic tools of the linguistic anthropology of education, this article raises questions of the potential functions of stylized characters' voices in literary critical talk. This research contributes to ongoing conversations regarding the pragmatics of voicing, stylization, and the intersections of teacher talk and literacy learning in classroom discourse, with specific attention to the pedagogic work of enregistering bundles of linguistic features with particular teacher‐driven interpretive perspectives on literary characters.     

The Role of Play in Secondary English Classrooms

Michael Young’s notion of powerful knowledge is attractive to many: to teachers wishing the best for disadvantaged students, to neoliberal governments that continually stress the need for teachers and students to improve their performance. This essay takes issue with this understanding of education. Firstly, it shows how classrooms are mediated by larger social and political contexts, arguing that the exchanges within classrooms are always inflected by the values and aspirations that students bring into class. No classroom can be treated as a neutral site, as though it exists apart from the conflicts and debates that occur within the larger society. Secondly, it shows how, through role-play, students are able to grapple with the social issues with which they and their communities are faced. Set in a classroom in Ramallah, the essay argues that through role-play and dialogue, students are able to activate their own prior knowledge in powerful ways that allow them to gain insight into their world.     

Pathways to Quality: From Internal Program Supports to Early Educators’ Practice

Research Findings: Early care and education (ECE) quality is critical for children’s learning, and ECE programs’ support of teachers’ learning may be important for ensuring high-quality classrooms. Yet little is known about how such supports operate outside of resource-intensive research studies and interventions. This study explores pathways through which “naturally occurring” professional development supports are related to improved classroom quality. Structural equation modeling results reveal indirect associations of support for mentoring with gains in structural and interactional aspects of classroom quality the following year via teachers’ participation in mentoring. Improvements in classroom quality were not similarly associated with support for degree attainment, nor were they related to teachers’ participation in a degree program, beliefs about teaching and learning, or job satisfaction. Practice or Policy: These findings help to expand our understanding of the complex relations among characteristics of ECE programs, individual teachers, and classroom quality. Specifically, mentoring may be an accessible and effective choice for improving classroom quality and thus may serve as a desirable target for policy aimed at improving ECE quality at scale.     

Using a New Learning Environment Questionnaire for Reflection in Teacher Action Research

This article reports the development, validation and use of an instrument designed to provide teachers with feedback information, based on students’ perceptions, about their classroom environments. The instrument was developed to provide teachers with feedback that they could use to reflect on their teaching practices and, in turn, guide the implementation of strategies to improve their learning environments. To determine the validity and reliability of the new instrument, data from 2043 grade 11 and 12 students from 147 classes in 9 schools were analysed. The Rasch model was used to convert data collected using a frequency response scale into interval data that are suitable for parametric analyses. During an action research process, reflective journals, written feedback, discussions at a forum and interviews with eight teachers helped to illuminate the processes used by teachers during action research. This article reports the views of these teachers in general and examines more closely how one of the teachers used student responses to the learning environment questionnaire as a tool for reflection and as a guide in transforming her classroom environment. This case study helped us to gauge the extent to which action research based on students’ perceptions of the learning environment was useful in guiding teachers’ improvements of their classroom learning environments.     

Preschoolers’ Understanding of How Others Learn Through Action and Instruction

It is widely believed that exploration is a mechanism for young children's learning. The present investigation examines preschoolers’ beliefs about how learning occurs. We asked 3‐ to 5‐year‐olds to articulate how characters in a set of stories learned about a new toy. Younger preschoolers were more likely to overemphasize the role of characters’ actions in learning than older children were (Experiment 1, N = 53). Overall performance improved when the stories explicitly stated that characters were originally ignorant and clarified the characters’ actions, but general developmental trends remained (Experiment 2, N = 48). These data suggest that explicit metacognitive understanding of the relation between actions and learning is developing during the preschool years, which might have implications for how children learn from exploration.     

Teacher Questioning: The Epicenter of Instruction and Assessment

In this article we examine some sequences of teacher–student interaction in which a teacher generates and acts on formative assessment data. We look at the teacher's practices of question construction and her decisions about in situ next pedagogical steps made in real time to support and further student learning. Our observations are guided by the following research questions: (a) What are the interactional practices that constitute formative assessment? (b) Are there observable classroom routines and organization that support these interactional practices? Our observations suggest that open and respectful pedagogical questioning is a key resource in eliciting students' current learning status, and for making decisions about next steps in student learning. Stable classroom routines and mutually understood interactional goals and practices are significant supports for these processes.     

愉快英语课堂教学

如何提高大学英语教学的课堂质量,探索新的教学方法,一直是广大英语教师面临的重要研究课题。愉快英语教学符合学生课堂学习特点,其核心是使快乐贯穿于英语教学的各个方面。实践表明,这样的英语课堂生动活泼,能充分激发学生的学习积极性,培养他们的创造性,大大提高课堂学习效果。     

Teachers' Attitudes Towards Mainstreaming and Their Pupils' Perceptions of Their Classroom Learning Environment

In spite of the widespread adoption of policies on mainstreaming, and more recently on inclusive education for children and young people with special educational needs, little is actually known about the relationship between what teachers think about such policies and the type of learning environments that they provide. In this study in New Zealand, a sample of regular primary school teachers (N= 63) were categorised according to ‘high’, ‘moderate’ or ‘low’ scores on a scale which measures their views on mainstreaming policies and practices. The pupils (N= 1729) of these teachers also completed a scale measuring perceptions of their classroom learning environments. Children taught by teachers who espoused highly positive attitudes towards mainstreaming were found to have significantly higher levels of classroom satisfaction and marginally lower levels of classroom friction than children taught by teachers with less positive attitudes. Implications of these findings are discussed for further research on the role of teacher attitudes in the successful inclusion of children and young people with special needs and for policies on the implementation of effective inclusive practice. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

小学信息技术课堂实践角色扮演教学的探索

从教师做好相关的课前准备工作、创设良好的硬件环境,注重激起学生角色扮演的热情、引导学生协同合作进行角色扮演的探究、交流角色扮演的经验等方面论述如何在小学信息技术课堂实践角色扮演教学。     

Reflective Classroom Practice: case studies of student teachers at work

Abstract

This paper addresses the nature of reflective classroom practice in a setting where action research has been undertaken by both the student teachers and the teaching practice supervisor. It is based on a cross‐case study of the processes through which student teachers learn to teach. Specifically, the analysis focuses on how student teachers reflect on their experiences in learning to teach. The data are based on student teachers’ reported thoughts about their learning over a period of one year. The results contribute to the understanding of reflective classroom practice by highlighting first student teachers’ perceptions about learning to teach and second their reviews on classroom practice. The discussion also adds to the literature on teacher development taken from the novice‐expert research tradition. Accordingly, implications for curriculum development in teacher education are drawn.     

Assessment and the co-regulation of learning in the classroom

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the processes of regulation of student learning that are associated with formative assessment in the classroom. It discusses the concept of co-regulation and presents a model of co-regulation developed in a situated perspective on classroom learning. This model conceptualises co-regulated learning as resulting from the joint influence of student self-regulation and of sources of regulation in the learning environment: namely, the structure of the teaching/learning situation, the teacher’s interventions and interactions with students, the interactions between students, and the tools used for instruction and for assessment. Examples of research showing how co-regulation functions are discussed, in particular students’ use of tools for self-assessment and peer assessment, and the role of teacher–student interactions that encourage active student participation in formative assessment.     

Learning logs: A classroom practice for enhancing scientific sense making

This case study of an advanced physics class analyzes the implications of a practice that creates opportunities for groups of science students to share thoughts and observations, defend viewpoints, and negotiate consensus about their thinking. The activity that facilitates such sense-making processes is computerized journaling. Because these documents are more than a static mechanism for organizing notes and observations, they are called learning logs. A system of analysis drawn from the literature on writing and learning in science was developed and systematically applied to characterize the formal and stylistic elements of writing contained in learning logs and to investigate changes in the nature and pattern of science discourse over time. These scientific conversations were found to support a dynamic classroom environment that helped learners to make sense of complex science topics. Writing in learning logs provides a vehicle for students and teachers to make their knowledge public, and builds an atmosphere for valuing the conceptual understanding of others. The journals also mediate an ongoing dialogue between the instructor and students, a feature that redefines traditional classroom roles and responsibilities. Conversing about science through the medium of computerized learning logs resulted in a closely knit community of reflective learners. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.